difficulty in the snow

[asmith88]

as soon as snow hits, my car becomes completley immobilised, wheels just spin away to themselves, im completley fed up as it dosent look like the snow is going anywhere soon, the 30mile round trip to work means im not getting in at all these days

it currently has 17 inch alpinas, lowered 60/40 on bilstein b6s, 318is.

im clutching at straws but any tips for the winter?, would bottletops make a big difference? anything else?

cheers andy

[Jhonno]

Bottletops with decent winter tyres would help..

Raised arse end for less camber

[Jim320i]

Someone is selling snow tyres on here at the moment for £50... 15", so you'd need to get some wheels for them but ideal...

[HairyScreech]

your trouble is wide low profile 17" tyres and lowered suspension with camber.

[320iAN]

not had any prob's with my 318iS sat on 17'z & lowered ... and we've had the snow for 3wks ..
2nd gear for moving away with plenty of rev's & a lot of clutch control

at one point i was picking up 2 folk on my way in to work due to there X5's being utter useless in the snow

[Raj_p]

not had any prob's with my 318iS sat on 17'z & lowered ... and we've had the snow for 3wks ..
2nd gear for moving away with plenty of rev's & a lot of clutch control

at one point i was picking up 2 folk on my way in to work due to there X5's being utter useless in the snow

You've been lucky then i guess. I live on a steep hill and the road to my house has a camber, and the E30 sucks... the back end just follows the camber in the road.

Im using my bottle tops with winter tyres and still shite... I will just leave it parked up and use my volvo

[Grrrmachine]

Going from 205/50R15s to 185/65R14s made a hell of a difference for me, plus I'm using winter tyres (NOT snow tyres, those are something else.) The narrower profile helps you put more weight per square inch to press down through the snow, and the wider channels in the tyres help move the slush out of the way. The car is a LOT more planted on those tyres than it is on Toyo Proxes. I took mine 400km each way to the Polish mountains last year in a blizzard, and had no problems at all.

If you're not going to put the right shoes on your motor, there's no point driving it at all.

[asmith88]

much improvement with the bottletops?

[charlE30]

much improvement with the bottletops?

It'll mostly depend on the tyres mate, but as you running 205/40 profile tyres I dare say it will make a bit of difference as the narrow tyre will cut through the snow better.

I'm running 60/40 drop with 205/55/15's and have not really had any trouble yet and we've got shed loads of the white stuff.

If you've already got a set of bottle tops it can't hurt to give it a go

What about a set of those snow socks? someone on here tried some and was well impressed - there is a thread somewhere

[asmith88]

havent got bottletops, sold them in the summer , not sure if snow socks are an option, the country roads are all snow but once i get onto the motorway its fairly clear, will the snow socks not end up tearing apart?

[charlE30]

I'd guess so on the motorway, they're very quick to fit/remove. Could you not use something like them or even snow chains to do the country lanes and then pull over before the motorway?

[e30-EVN]

Classic point, you only have to look at the world of the wrc where on snow rallies they up the suspension and fit narrower tyres (with studs) to gain more grip.
You would think that having 17' tyres would give more grip but it isn't the case hence these X5's ect are utterly crap in the snow with their flash 19' rims!
14's with like 18 psi would be the best bet imo

[Grrrmachine]

Snow chains are heavily regulated, because they're really good at ripping up asphalt; they're only really practical in places that have a compacted layer of ice four inches thick on the roads, like what we have here. And even then they're not for speeds over 30mph.

Snow socks to get you out of snowy spots, but proper winter tyres should be on the car from November to February. The more I drive over here, the more I understand why they're mandatory in countries like Germany.

[asmith88]

see if i can get my hands on a cheap local set of bottletops

[charlE30]

I didn't think lowering the PSI was recommended for snow?

[reevsy]

I had my first experience of snow+ RWD today driving to work.

Was ok until the first incline and then..... stuck. Turned around in the end and got a mate with a 4X4 to take me in

[e30-EVN]

I didn't think lowering the PSI was recommended for snow?

i was speaking to a neighbour earlier who has a discovery with off road tyres on, he gets called out to pull stuck people out of the snow and was saying instead of taking all the main roads to cardiff, which were chocka block today, he went through the back lanes which were a foot deep and his 4x4 ploughed through no problem at all, even up leckwith hill, which is steep as!!
he said the tyres really have come into their own since the snow but he can get pretty much anywhere, ''and that's without lowering the tyre pressures'' he said. he's a bit of an off road freak so he's loving this lol

[320iAN]

iX:

[e30-EVN]

fuck! they do alright those ix's dont they . ive got to agree with one of the comments, it seems wrong seing the fronts spinning on a bmw

[Gwynleym10]

Lowering pressure works in sand, and that is to increase the surface area of the tyre - exactly what you don't want in snow I would have thought. AA / RAC etc etc all say that tyres should be at recommended levels.

But would some extra weight in the boot of an e30 help?

[Brianmoooore]

But would some extra weight in the boot of an e30 help?

Boot floor of mine's covered in a layer of 4" concrete blocks!

[e30-EVN]

AA / RAC etc etc all say that tyres should be at recommended levels

in that case i stand corrected lol, but an e30, being so light on the back end would definatly benefit from some extra weight in the boot!

[e30mazm3]

not had any prob's with my 318iS sat on 17'z & lowered ... and we've had the snow for 3wks ..
2nd gear for moving away with plenty of rev's & a lot of clutch control

at one point i was picking up 2 folk on my way in to work due to there X5's being utter useless in the snow

Bulls**t. X5s are awesome in the snow how can you compare them to your little rust heap rear wheel drive? When it snowed in january my X5 4.4 petrol was a dream to drive. Hardly noticed any slip and it was auto.

This year ive got an e30 and its too unpredictable. Id rather take my e36 m3 out and just use 4th gear

[ultralinear]

not had any prob's with my 318iS sat on 17'z & lowered ... and we've had the snow for 3wks ..
2nd gear for moving away with plenty of rev's & a lot of clutch control

at one point i was picking up 2 folk on my way in to work due to there X5's being utter useless in the snow

Bulls**t. X5s are awesome in the snow how can you compare them to your little rust heap rear wheel drive? When it snowed in january my X5 4.4 petrol was a dream to drive. Hardly noticed any slip and it was auto.

This year ive got an e30 and its too unpredictable. Id rather take my e36 m3 out and just use 4th gear

What?

[Brianmoooore]

Bulls**t. X5s are awesome in the snow how can you compare them to your little rust heap rear wheel drive? When it snowed in january my X5 4.4 petrol was a dream to drive. Hardly noticed any slip and it was auto.

This is what worries me about sharing the road with the driver's of these kind of things. They seem to forget that although they have superior traction, their braking abilities are considerably less than 'normal' cars.

[e30-EVN]

how can you compare them to your little rust heap rear wheel drive?

bit of an anti-social comment towards a fellow e30 owner ain it??!

i personaly to think that x5's are quite shocking in the snow as a mate of mine has one and it was crap even by his own admission! same as the x3 all of them! big wide low profile tyres which on this thread alone has already been said are not what is needed on snow. bmw should not make 4x4's as they are shite at it, and thats not to say that an e30 is a landrover discovery but hey lol

[Simon13]

x5's are a chav wagon they should all be burned!

[e30-EVN]

x5's are a chav wagon they should all be burned!

+1 on this one simon, ive even said to my mate its like he drives around thinking.... look at me look at me lol

[Simon13]

theres this horrible fat c**t whos thinks he's double 'ard as hes rather large and a doorman. He drives an X5.

And typical X5 behaviour. I struggle to get out of my road in the snow so once its fallen i'm out with the shovel and clean the road a big section both sides of my drive. I then get some salt from the box and hey we can park get in out the drive up the tiny incline in the road and get out without drama.

I'm not kidding i'd been out there 30mins cleared about enough for 2 cars to park and this egit comes out the house falls flat on his arse trying to get into the X5 and parks it outside my house where i've just cleared the snow and walks back in the house like its normal. I just stared in astonishment at the ignorance? he rents his house of course no community spirit the paddling pool is still out in the garden from the summer fozen solid

[Grrrmachine]

Simon, if you've spent hours shovelling snow over here and tehn some wazzock does that, you mix rice with olive oil and smear it all over his roof. Then you watch the starving little birdies peck the shit out of his paintwork, eating the evidence as they go.

Not that I'm condoning such behaviour, of course, but there's taking the p!ss and there's taking the p!ss.

[Simon13]

i've been thinking about some sort of revenge. I'm off work so i must try and be useful in some way! i'll be out 2moro as its coming down hard again now

I was going to pile the snow infront and behind, theni thought i could move all my cars and block him in. As we have enough to use others!

[e30-EVN]

Simon, if you've spent hours shovelling snow over here and tehn some wazzock does that, you mix rice with olive oil and smear it all over his roof. Then you watch the starving little birdies peck the shit out of his paintwork, eating the evidence as they go.

Not that I'm condoning such behaviour, of course, but there's taking the p!ss and there's taking the p!ss

[Morat]

Tyres are the key. As an experiment I've been driving around in the Jeep in 2WD and it's fine, just a bit less stable because you don't have the fronts helping to drag you round in corners. That's using all season MandS tyres which are pretty much magic imo.
So far I've towed an Audi Quattro on summer tyres and shoved a freelander because it had a broken driveshaft and was stuck in front wheel drive. HAH. Oh, and there was an Audi Q7 barge which failed to make it up an icy hill because the dozy bint used the "stop at the bottom, then rev it" technique. Fail.

Simon, the bird trick sounds excellent but I reckon you've got more to lose in the paintwork department. How about the next time it snows you chuck a couple of buckets of hot water on his front path? By morning it'll look like a nice covering of fresh snow, but underneath.....

[town325i]

But would some extra weight in the boot of an e30 help?

Boot floor of mine's covered in a layer of 4" concrete blocks!

Last year my touring had a boot with 5 buckets of grit in it that i had borrowed just in case i got stuck

[Raj_p]

But would some extra weight in the boot of an e30 help?

Boot floor of mine's covered in a layer of 4" concrete blocks!

Last year my touring had a boot with 5 buckets of grit in it that i had borrowed just in case i got stuck

You give it back after you used it?